So the final race of the 3-week assault has come to an end. With another successful result I have managed to claim my 3rdwin in a row at Ironman 70.3 Campeche.
The past week was a tough one and included; a long travel day from Argentina, having to shift from freezing conditions to super hot conditions, managing my recovery in an effective way, managing my food intake along with a couple other issues that arose through the week without getting sick or run down.
I definitely prefer racing in warmer climates, Campeche was a cool town and had some interesting history with a small number of international tourists, And as I have experienced in other Mexican and South American races, the Latin American fans are some of the best in the world and this contributed to a memorable end to a pretty historic 15days of racing.
The race start was at the Campeche country club, which was a beautiful venue. Ruby Von Burg got a small gap in the swim and I shared the load with Kevin Collington trying to limit our deficit and do some damage on some of the stronger bike/runners in the field.
Off onto the undulating bike course I soon bridged across to Ruby at the front of the race and at Km 25 when I could see the rest of the fields time gaps I decided that a little bit more heat needed to be added. I soon found myself navigating the remainder of the bike solo. Michael Weiss of Austria who likes the heat and puts together great races in Mexico was 3minutes back with the final 30km and he would work to close this to 2 minutes coming off the bike.
The spring in the step was not quite there and somewhat to be expected. I was hoping that it was going to be a scorcher but it was not as hot as predicted and the pace had to be a little quicker. I seemed to manage my pace well through to 10miles and the gap to Weiss had bounced between 2 minutes and 1.5minutes. My legs were still coping okay and I managed to enjoy the final 2 miles home before breaking the tape for my 3rd win over 3 weekends.
With a bit of free time this past week I accumulated some of my past results and this was a record Half Ironman victory number 32 (Ironman 70.3 number 27).
Next up – a few easy weeks and some time with the family. I am off to Kona for a couple days for an Aquasphere photoshoot and I am looking forward to visiting the island and soaking up some of the spiritual energy before the rest of the season continues…
